Verifying whether a device is communicating with a server

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/203,711 filed May 31, 2023, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/066,687 filed Oct. 9, 2020, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/096,113 filed Apr. 28, 2011 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,810,823 issued Oct. 20, 2020), which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/560,124 filed Nov. 15, 2006 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,942,741 issued May 17, 2011), each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

The present application is related to the following U.S. Patent Applications, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for the purpose of enablement and written description: Ser. No. 10/771,221, filed on Feb. 3, 2004; Ser. No. 10/771,076, filed on Feb. 3, 2004; Ser. No. 10/759,693, filed on Jan. 15, 2004; Ser. No. 10/687,302, filed on Oct. 14, 2003; Ser. No. 10/667,923, filed on Sep. 22, 2003; Ser. No. 10/667,755, filed on Sep. 22, 2003; Ser. No. 10/654,280, filed on Sep. 3, 2003; Ser. No. 10/651,537, filed on Aug. 29, 2003; Ser. No. 10/194,186, filed on Jul. 12, 2002; Ser. No. 10/194,019, filed on Jul. 12, 2002; Ser. No. 10/194,018, filed on Jul. 12, 2002; Ser. No. 10/193,980, filed on Jul. 12, 2002; Ser. No. 10/193,978, filed on Jul. 12, 2002; Ser. No. 10/193,977, filed on Jul. 12, 2002; Ser. No. 10/193,971, filed on Jul. 12, 2002; Ser. No. 10/193,817, filed on Jul. 12, 2002; Ser. No. 09/846,025, filed on Apr. 30, 2001; Ser. No. 09/378,327, filed on Aug. 20, 1999; Ser. No. 9/267,865, filed on Mar. 12, 1999; Ser. No. 11/406,783, filed Apr. 18, 2006; Ser. No. 11/022,394, filed on Dec. 22, 2004; Ser. No. 11/021,848, filed on Dec. 22, 2004; Ser. No. 11/018,978, filed on Dec. 21, 2004; Ser. No. 10/983,279, filed on Nov. 5, 2004; Ser. No. 10/963,399, filed on Oct. 12, 2004; Ser. No. 10/879,972, filed on Jun. 28, 2004; Ser. No. 10/836,999, filed on Apr. 29, 2004; Ser. No. 10/836,975, filed on Apr. 29, 2004; Ser. No. 10/836,958, filed on Apr. 29, 2004; Ser. No. 10/836,077, filed on Apr. 29, 2004; Ser. No. 10/835,995, filed on Apr. 29, 2004; Ser. No. 11/171,809, filed on Jun. 29, 2005; Ser. No. 11/076,561, filed on Mar. 9, 2005; Ser. No. 11/063,311, filed on Feb. 21, 2005; Ser. No. 11/032,724, filed on Jan. 10, 2005; Ser. No. 10/822,484, filed on Apr. 12, 2004; Ser. No. 10/816,238, filed on Apr. 1, 2004; Ser. No. 10/798,106, filed on Mar. 10, 2004; Ser. No. 10/784,353, filed on Feb. 23, 2004; Ser. No. 11/403,722, filed on Apr. 12, 2006; Ser. No. 11/397,596, filed on Apr. 3, 2006; Ser. No. 11/335,253, filed on Jan. 18, 2006; Ser. No. 11/335,210, filed on Jan. 18, 2006; Ser. No. 11/334,848, filed on Jan. 18, 2006; Ser. No. 11/256,568, filed on Oct. 21, 2005; Ser. No. 11/210,482, filed on Aug. 24, 2005; Ser. No. 11/201,830, filed on Aug. 10, 2005; Ser. No. 11/201,812, filed on Aug. 10, 2005; Ser. No. 11/199,964, filed on Aug. 9, 2005; Ser. No. 11/199,835, filed on Aug. 9, 2005; Ser. No. 11/199,831, filed on Aug. 9, 2005; Ser. No. 11/190,613, filed on Jul. 26, 2005; Ser. No. 11/172,018, filed on Jun. 29, 2005; Ser. No. 10/616,779, filed on Jul. 10, 2003; Ser. No. 10/453,769, filed on Jun. 3, 2003; Ser. No. 10/453,761, filed on Jun. 3, 2003; Ser. No. 10/410,197, filed on Apr. 10, 2003; Ser. No. 10/404,043, filed on Apr. 2, 2003; Ser. No. 10/287,332, filed on Nov. 1, 2002; and Ser. No. 10/194,358, filed on Jul. 12, 2002.

The term “herein” means “in the present application, including anything which may be incorporated by reference,” unless expressly specified otherwise.

The term “product” means any machine, manufacture and/or composition of matter, unless expressly specified otherwise.

The term “process” means any process, algorithm, method, or the like, unless expressly specified otherwise.

Each process (whether called a method, algorithm or otherwise) inherently includes one or more steps, and therefore all references to a “step” or “steps” of a process have an inherent antecedent basis in the mere recitation of the term ‘process’ or a like term. Accordingly, any reference in a claim to a ‘step’ or ‘steps’ of a process has sufficient antecedent basis.

The terms “including,” “comprising” and variations thereof mean “including but not limited to,” unless expressly specified otherwise.

The term “plurality” means “two or more,” unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms “a,” “an” and “the” mean “one or more,” unless expressly specified otherwise.

The phrase “at least one of,” when such phrase modifies a plurality of things (such as an enumerated list of things), means any combination of one or more of those things, unless expressly specified otherwise. For example, the phrase “at least one of a widget, a car and a wheel” means either (i) a widget, (ii) a car, (iii) a wheel, (iv) a widget and a car, (v) a widget and a wheel, (vi) a car and a wheel, or (vii) a widget, a car, and a wheel. The phrase “at least one of,” when such phrase modifies a plurality of things, does not mean “one of each of” the plurality of things.

Numerical terms such as “one,” “two,” etc. when used as cardinal numbers to indicate quantity of something (e.g., one widget, two widgets), mean the quantity indicated by that numerical term, but do not mean at least the quantity indicated by that numerical term. For example, the phrase “one widget” does not mean “at least one widget,” and therefore the phrase “one widget” does not cover, e.g., two widgets.

The term “represent” and like terms are not exclusive, unless expressly specified otherwise. For example, the term “represents” do not mean “represents only,” unless expressly specified otherwise. In other words, the phrase “the data represents a credit card number” describes both “the data represents only a credit card number” and “the data represents a credit card number, and the data also represents something else.”

The phrase “based on” does not mean “based only on,” unless expressly specified otherwise. In other words, the phrase “based on” describes both “based only on” and “based at least on.” The phrase “based at least on” is equivalent to the phrase “based at least in part on.”

The term “whereby” is used herein only to precede a clause or other set of words that express only the intended result, objective, or consequence of something that is previously and explicitly recited. Thus, when the term “whereby” is used in a claim, the clause, or other words that the term “whereby” modifies do not establish specific further limitations of the claim or otherwise restricts the meaning or scope of the claim.

The term “i.e.” and like terms mean “that is,” and thus limits the term or phrase it explains. For example, in the sentence “the computer sends data (i.e., instructions) over the Internet,” the term “i.e.” explains that “instructions” are the “data” that the computer sends over the Internet.

The term “e.g.” and like terms mean “for example,” and thus does not limit the term or phrase it explains. For example, in the sentence “the computer sends data (e.g., instructions, a data structure) over the Internet”, the term “e.g.” explains that “instructions” are an example of “data” that the computer may send over the Internet, and also explains that “a data structure” is an example of “data” that the computer may send over the Internet. However, both “instructions” and “a data structure” are merely examples of “data,” and other things besides “instructions” and “a data structure” can be “data.”

The term “respective” and like terms mean “taken individually.” Thus if two or more things have “respective” characteristics, then each such thing has its own characteristic, and these characteristics can be different from each other but need not be. For example, the phrase “each of two machines has a respective function” means that the first such machine has a function and the second such machine has a function as well. The function of the first machine may or may not be the same as the function of the second machine.

Any given numerical range shall include whole and fractions of numbers within the range. For example, the range “1 to 10” shall be interpreted to specifically include whole numbers between 1 and 10 (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . 9) and non-whole numbers (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, . . . 1.9).

Where two or more terms or phrases are synonymous (e.g., because of an explicit statement that the terms or phrases are synonymous), instances of one such term/phrase does not mean instances of another such term/phrase must have a different meaning. For example, where a statement renders the meaning of “including” to be synonymous with “including but not limited to”, the mere usage of the phrase “including but not limited to” does not mean that the term “including” means something other than “including but not limited to”.

The term “invention” and the like mean “the one or more inventions disclosed in this application”, unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms “an embodiment,” “embodiment,” “embodiments,” “the embodiment,” “the embodiments,” “one or more embodiments,” “some embodiments,” “certain embodiments,” “one embodiment,” “another embodiment” and the like mean “one or more (but not all) embodiments of the disclosed invention(s),” unless expressly specified otherwise.

The term “variation” of an invention means an embodiment of the invention, unless expressly specified otherwise.

A reference to “another embodiment” in describing an embodiment does not imply that the referenced embodiment is mutually exclusive with another embodiment (e.g., an embodiment described before the referenced embodiment), unless expressly specified otherwise.

The term “determining” and grammatical variants thereof (e.g., to determine a price, determining a value, determine an object which meets a certain criterion) is used in an extremely broad sense. The term “determining” encompasses a wide variety of actions and therefore “determining” can include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in a table, a database, or another data structure), ascertaining and the like. Also, “determining” can include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also, “determining” can include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, and the like.

The term “determining” does not imply certainty or absolute precision, and therefore “determining” can include estimating, extrapolating, predicting, guessing and the like.

The term “determining” does not imply that mathematical processing must be performed and does not imply that numerical methods must be used and does not imply that an algorithm or process is used.

The term “determining” does not imply that any particular device must be used. For example, a computer need not necessarily perform the determining.

Where a limitation of a first claim would cover one of a feature as well as more than one of a feature (e.g., a limitation such as “at least one widget” covers one widget as well as more than one widget), and where in a second claim that depends on the first claim, the second claim uses a definite article “the” to refer to the limitation (e.g., “the widget”), this does not imply that the first claim covers only one of the feature, and this does not imply that the second claim covers only one of the feature (e.g., “the widget” can cover both one widget and more than one widget).

When an ordinal number (such as “first”, “second”, “third” and so on) is used as an adjective before a term, that ordinal number is used (unless expressly specified otherwise) merely to indicate a particular feature, such as to distinguish that particular feature from another feature that is described by the same term or by a similar term. For example, a “first widget” may be so named merely to distinguish it from, e.g., a “second widget.” Thus, the mere usage of the ordinal numbers “first” and “second” before the term “widget” does not indicate any other relationship between the two widgets, and likewise does not indicate any other characteristics of either or both widgets. For example, the mere usage of the ordinal numbers “first” and “second” before the term “widget” (1) does not indicate that either widget comes before or after any other in order or location; (2) does not indicate that either widget occurs or acts before or after any other in time; and (3) does not indicate that either widget ranks above or below any other, as in importance or quality. In addition, the mere usage of ordinal numbers does not define a numerical limit to the features identified with the ordinal numbers. For example, the mere usage of the ordinal numbers “first” and “second” before the term “widget” does not indicate that there must be no more than two widgets.

When a single device or article is described herein, more than one device/article (whether or not they cooperate) may alternatively be used in place of the single device/article that is described. Accordingly, the functionality that is described as being possessed by a device may alternatively be possessed by more than one device/article (whether or not they cooperate).

Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein (whether or not they cooperate), a single device/article may alternatively be used in place of the more than one device or article that is described. For example, a plurality of computer-based devices may be substituted with a single computer-based device. Accordingly, the various functionality that is described as being possessed by more than one device or article may alternatively be possessed by a single device/article.

The functionality and/or the features of a single device that is described may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices which are described but are not explicitly described as having such functionality/features. Thus, other embodiments need not include the described device itself, but rather can include the one or more other devices which would, in those other embodiments, have such functionality/features.

The term “indication” is used in an extremely broad sense. The term “indication” may, among other things, encompass a sign, symptom, or token of something else.

The term “indication” may be used to refer to any indicia and/or other information indicative of or associated with a subject, item, entity, and/or other object and/or idea.

As used herein, the phrases “information indicative of” and “indicia” may be used to refer to any information that represents, describes, and/or is otherwise associated with a related entity, subject, or object.

Indicia of information may include, for example, a code, a reference, a link, a signal, an identifier, and/or any combination thereof and/or any other informative representation associated with the information.

In some embodiments, indicia of information (or indicative of the information) may be or include the information itself and/or any portion or component of the information. In some embodiments, an indication may include a request, a solicitation, a broadcast, and/or any other form of information gathering and/or dissemination.

Neither the Title (set forth at the beginning of the first page of the present application) nor the Abstract (set forth at the end of the present application) is to be taken as limiting in any way as the scope of the disclosed invention(s). An Abstract has been included in this application merely because an Abstract of not more than 150 words is required under 37 C.F.R. § 1.72(b).

The title of the present application and headings of sections provided in the present application are for convenience only and are not to be taken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Numerous embodiments are described in the present application and are presented for illustrative purposes only. The described embodiments are not, and are not intended to be, limiting in any sense. The presently disclosed invention(s) are widely applicable to numerous embodiments, as is readily apparent from the disclosure. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the disclosed invention(s) may be practiced with various modifications and alterations, such as structural, logical, software, and electrical modifications. Although particular features of the disclosed invention(s) may be described with reference to one or more particular embodiments and/or drawings, it should be understood that such features are not limited to usage in the one or more particular embodiments or drawings with reference to which they are described, unless expressly specified otherwise.

No embodiment of method steps or product elements described in the present application constitutes the invention claimed herein, or is essential to the invention claimed herein, or is coextensive with the invention claimed herein, except where it is either expressly stated to be so in this specification or expressly recited in a claim.

All words in every claim have the broadest scope of meaning they would have been given by a person of ordinary skill in the art as of the priority date. No term used in any claim is specially defined or limited by this application except where expressly so stated either in this specification or in a claim.

The preambles of the claims that follow recite purposes, benefits, and possible uses of the claimed invention only and do not limit the claimed invention.

The present disclosure is not a literal description of all embodiments of the invention(s). Also, the present disclosure is not a listing of features of the invention(s) which must be present in all embodiments.

Devices that are described as in communication with each other need not be in continuous communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. On the contrary, such devices need only transmit to each other as necessary or desirable and may actually refrain from exchanging data most of the time. For example, a machine in communication with another machine via the Internet may not transmit data to the other machine for long period of time (e.g., weeks at a time). In addition, devices that are in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries.

A description of an embodiment with several components or features does not imply that all or even any of such components/features are required. On the contrary, a variety of optional components are described to illustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the present invention(s). Unless otherwise specified explicitly, no component/feature is essential or required.

Although process steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a particular sequential order, such processes may be configured to work in different orders. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may be explicitly described does not necessarily indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. The steps of processes described herein may be performed in any order practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to the invention(s), and does not imply that the illustrated process is preferred.

Although a process may be described as including a plurality of steps, that does not imply that all or any of the steps are preferred, essential or required. Various other embodiments within the scope of the described invention(s) include other processes that omit some or all of the described steps. Unless otherwise specified explicitly, no step is essential or required.

Although a process may be described singly or without reference to other products or methods, in an embodiment the process may interact with other products or methods. For example, such interaction may include linking one business model to another business model. Such interaction may be provided to enhance the flexibility or desirability of the process.

Although a product may be described as including a plurality of components, aspects, qualities, characteristics and/or features, that does not indicate that any or all of the plurality are preferred, essential or required. Various other embodiments within the scope of the described invention(s) include other products that omit some or all of the described plurality.